While Australia burns, California shrivels, and officials are preparing for yet another year of drought by once again drastically cutting water allocations to farmers.

Reuters’ PlanetArk reports that water allocations to farmers from the Central Valley Project will stand at zero this year while allotments from state water resources will be only 15 percent of normal amounts.

Those decisions are likely to leave dry some one million acres of farmland and leave at least 60,000 agricultural workers idle — bad news for a state in which unemployment already exceeds 9 percent.

Climate change is already being blamed for California’s ongoing drought woes, and new US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu recently warned the situation could become far worse unless drastic action is taken. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times earlier this month, Chu warned, “We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California.”

The US’s top agricultural state, California produces most of the nation’s strawberries, dairy products, almonds, olives, raisins and walnuts, among other crops.

Tags: water